Polish MMA promotion gives neo-nazi the boot

Finnish MMA fighter with nazi tattoos gets the boot from KSW in Poland

Niko Puhakka, a Finnish mixed-martial arts fighter described as a 'neo-fascist' has been removed from Polish MMA promotion KSW this week. The fighter, who is 24-11 in MMA, had been scheduled to fight for their vacant lightweight title but due to the uproar caused by his obvious far-right leanings, the promotion pulled him from their roster.

The organisation's reasons were motivated by negative publicity - they were apparently happy to let him compete previously despite him being well-known for his fascist sympathies. Puhakka fought and won their lightweight tournament last year, hence his title shot. He has 'Blood & Honour' across his chest, and also German 'soldiers waving a Nazi flag on his upper right arm'.

He had already fought for KSW three times. It's likely that he'd never caused an uproar because he didn't quite have the exposure until he was announced as having a title fight.

KSW say their'federation never was and will never be an institution promoting any kind of political, religious or social beliefs. We are a sporting organization, which chooses its fighters solely on a basis of their athletic accomplishments. Our goal is to confront skills, records and names not fighter’s views.
However, the amount of negative feedback we received regarding the above- mentioned fighter forced us to exclude him from the competition.'

Puhakka had already been removed from British MMA promotion BAMMA's 'BAMMA 8' card a few months ago when they learned of his leanings. Puhakka has an association with fascist-imagery flogging MMA clothing line Hoelzer Reich who are banned by the UFC and its associated promotions.

There's already enough jingoistic, macho, nationalistic, flag-waving dickheads in MMA, I guess KSW just didn't have enough room for this one anymore.

How are we supposed to know when/if Valasquez is getting chucked out. Nobody here is an MMA official, this is an article about a guy with a Nazi* getting kicked out, no more, no less.

[feedin' the trolllllll!]

But I find this quote from Valasquez,

Quote:

"I got this tattoo for two reasons. One, for everything my parents did to come over to this country, all the hardships they had crossing the border. ‘Brown pride' when we were growing up meant ‘Mexican pride.' That's how we would say it. It's something to say if we're proud about where we came from. What my Dad did, my Mom did to get over to this country to me means a lot. I'm proud of where I came from. I'm proud of what Mexican people stand for. We're known as hard working people. We're known as fighters. We're known to have a lot of heart. We're known to never give up in the gym and have a lot of cardio. To always work hard. The work ethic that my Dad, all the Mexican people bring out in the fields and stuff, we bring to the gym and whatever else we do. Another reason why I got is because when I was growing up I didn't have anybody to look up to. There's nobody that was my size that was Mexican that looked like me that I could see in the media. I pretty much didn't have those dreams of ‘Hey, I can do that stuff. I can be in the media, I can play professional sports.' I didn't have that. I didn't have anybody to look up to so now that I'm in that position, I put ‘Brown Pride' on my chest to let people know ‘Hey, I'm Mexican. I'm proud to be Mexican. I'm doing good things.' For those people that just don't know the story behind it, that's all I can say. The only thing I can do is clear it up by doing interviews like this."

I can't imagine one being able to say the same about Blood and Honour and the Nazi's with the same tone. Can you?

'I come from a Nazi background, we are generally an overlooked people in America, my family faced a lot of hardship coming here being virulunt racists. As a young nazi racist growing up, i was told I couldn't do anything, but when I got to the gym, I started thinking 'so what if the Nazi's killed millions of peoples, I am good and doing this, and I am proud to be a Nazi'.

No trolling here. Just wanted to hear what you guys thought about other people than white being proud of their background, race, ethnicity (whatever one calls it).

The white guy had racist tattoos, and should have thought about that before getting them. No problems with me there. If he wants to be a nazi, he can be that at home.

I'm just wondering where the line goes.

If you don't put "nazi" in the story from Velasquez, but "white" is it then acceptable? There are many white kids facing hardships around the western world now that we have become "multicultural". Here where I live it's 40% non-white. It's not been easy being white - with racist abuse and beatings, and if I was to say - "White power" or "European power", I would be beat down or killed. But black kids can be proud of being black, or mexican kids can be proud of being mexican/latino.

The whole "nazi" thing is soon a thing of the past. What's in the future for white kids/youth who feel alienated by society, and becoming a minority where they grow up? (like me).

I am very dubious toward the idea that white people suffer racism to the same extend that other ethnic minorities do in Euro-America. There was some interesting discussion [url=http://libcom.org/blog/diane-abbott-stupid-naïve-or-racist-05012012]on this thread[/url] that you might want to read on the subject.

It seems to me, the reason why 'white' people are alienated, is not because of their colour but because of their class. This class exploitation is compounded for ethnic minorities by racist oppression.

N.B. On you saying 'white power', you would get beaten up for its associations with skinheads though right? Not for the thing in-itself. The logic isn't 'that guy had the audacity to be proud, lets smash the white guy. It is more 'people who say 'white power' usually end up killing us'. The line was drawn for this sort of business when people burnt crucifixs, bombed houses and murdered people, i don't see the point in going back there.

P.S. The reason I suspect trollage is at play here is that you have used the example of a quite clearly abhorrent neo-fascist to discuss these views. Sorry if your not. Are you some sort of anarchist or communist btw?

P.S. The reason I suspect trollage is at play here is that you have used the example of a quite clearly abhorrent neo-fascist to discuss these views. Sorry if your not. Are you some sort of anarchist or communist btw?

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